Project Overview
An Australian website for global change.
TEAR Australia is a Christian development, relief and advocacy organisation responding to global poverty and injustice in communities around the world. Working in partnership with local Christian development organisations, they manage short-term emergency relief, medium-term recovery and rehabilitation projects.
Evolution 7 was delighted to be selected to redevelop TEAR’s website and position it as a critical contender in the NFP environment. While the original sites served many user needs and contained a wealth of information on the organisation itself, both its content and functionality were outdated and falling short of how TEAR would like to be perceived in the digital space.
TEAR’s existing digital footprint contained three assets:
1. Tear.org.au - The NFP’s official website
2. Fortomorrow.org.au - a campaign microsite and storytelling platform
3. Usefulgifts.org - a gift-buying site that contributes to TEAR programmes
We tackled the fragmented digital presence with clear information architecture, choosing to retire one site and better link the other. New design elements create a sense of continuity between the official website the Useful Gifts shopfront, eliminating the risk of confusion or cart abandonment.
Extracting data from market research, analytics and user testing, we designed and developed a new site for TEAR that delivers a strong message to their target audience. Evocative photography, bold colours, clear typography and succinct microcopy, tell a strong story. This storytelling approach has positively impacted all areas of online performance since launch.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Antony Corrales (Project Manager)
Andrew Tesdorpf (UX Designer)
Romain Palmas (Lead Developer)
Matt Cordell (Backend Developer)
David Pike (Frontend Developer)
Ember Mitchell (Digital Strategist)
Project Brief
TEAR needed a website that could turn visitors into supporters.
TEAR exist to shape a fair and compassionate world in which all people have the opportunity to achieve their potential. To continue this great work, they needed to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of website visitors.
The website had two clear goals:
1. Create a digital home to increase awareness of TEAR’s work
2. Increase engagement to turn users into advocates and donors
The following project requirements ensured the website would work for TEAR and its users:
-Enable powerful storytelling
-Create a smooth user experience from awareness to donations
-Work seamlessly across devices
-Integrate with Salesforce
-Be easy to maintain for non-technical team members
Project Need
We needed to restructure information to create a smooth user experience.
The existing site was an archive of all things TEAR. Like a library without index cards, the overflowing repository was overwhelming and challenging to navigate.
-Information architecture simplifies structure and navigation
-UX research informed the design to guide users on a logical journey
-The design allows for a strong focus on storytelling
-Bold CTAs convert through newsletter sign-ups, event bookings, fundraising projects, and donations
And now for the tech bit:
TEAR needed clean, accurate data to feed into their CRM, Salesforce. We worked in collaboration with their Salesforce team to accurately map, implement and test data transfer between the website and the CRM. Salesforce acts as TEAR’s definitive source of truth, instantly updating when users enter data into the site.
User Experience
We knew what TEAR wanted from their site, and now it was time to hear it from the people.
Having spent almost 50 years working in advocacy and relief, TEAR had a tremendous amount of content. Our challenge was to structure it in a way users could explore without becoming lost.
We learned that some people visit the site and dive deep into content, learning about different projects and how the organisation operates. Others visit the landing page and donate to the current relief campaign. This difference revealed the behaviour of new vs. returning users.
We undertook a series of navigation prototype tests to ensure relevant areas of the site were accessible to existing brand fans and new users. The results uncovered critical blockers and directed us to rename specific categories to better resonate with users. UX research and testing ultimately improved the navigation structure to enhance the overall experience.
Project Marketing
We built a responsive website for new and existing users that contains educational resources, advocacy initiatives and precise ways to get involved.
Visual storytelling pages engage users through text, images, video, statistics, heartfelt quotes and strong call-to-actions (CTAs). Pages can be added and edited in Craft CMS with ease - even by ‘technically challenged’ teammates.
We leveraged TEAR’s vast library of imagery to add instant emotional impact throughout the site – driving click-throughs and deepening engagement.
Bold blocks and colour contrasts enhance statistics throughout the site; from the number of communities touched by TEAR to how the organisation manages its administration costs.
The homepage can be instantly updated to drive traffic to urgent relief campaigns, like the 2018 Indonesia Tsunami and Earthquake Appeal.
Strong CTAs can be added to content across the site to encourage conversion.
Donate and Useful Gifts conversion buttons are ‘always on’ in the primary nav, increasing visibility.
The donation element allows users to select from popular amounts and choose from a one-off or recurring payment. Once they click ‘donate’, a simple form collects the required data and feeds into Salesforce – in a single, distraction-free transaction.
An increase in online performance suggests the new home of TEAR is deepening engagement:
+20% time on site
-24% bounce rate
+9.3% site traffic
Project Privacy
Standard privacy procedure was followed under best practice on all contact forms and other areas of the website where personally identifiable data was collected. In addition, we ensure that no personal information is passed through Google Analytics (e.g. email addresses). Regular penetration testing is conducted to ensure the site and server are secure. The website, hosting and infrastructure pass this testing with no significant issues identified.
Digital - Community
This category is all about helping our communities to connect and engage, from emergency services to Not for Profits to social groups, these apps and sites not may not only assist in delivery but also create efficiencies providing those at the coalface more time to do their important work whether it be fighting fires or managing the local team. It's not all serious though we're also looking for projects that work to help bring the community groups together with fun and enjoyable activities.
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